Eugenie sends Karman packing; Indian challenge ends in singles

CHENNAI: Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard quelled a second set fightback from Indian Karman Kaur Thandi to win 6-2, 7-6 in the Round-of-16 of the WTA Chennai Open 250 at the SDAT Stadium here on Wednesday.

With Karman’s exit, the Indian challenge in the singles draw came to an end. The country’s No.1 Ankita Raina had gone down to Tatjana Maria in opening round on Tuesday. Bouchard was untroubled for the major part of the first set and looked set to run away with it before the India No.2 fought back and won two games. Inconsistency cost Karman as the former World No.5 closed out the set 6-2.

After storming to a one-set lead rather easily, the former Wimbledon runner-up was made to work hard by Karman, who was cheered by the home crowd. From 2-2, the 24-year-old Indian won three games on the trot and looked set to push the match into the decider.

She secured the much-needed break in the fifth game to take the lead and looked in command before losing the plot. Once errors crept into her game, the ‘local’ hope surrendered the advantage that she gained with some enterprising play – she squandered two set points and let Bouchard back into the set.

The Canadian, ranked in the 900s now and on a comeback trail, used her experience to bounce back and level the score at 5-all. After the duo held their respective serves, Bouchard was all over the Indian in the tie-break and quickly wrapped it up 7-2.

Speaking after the match, Bouchard said, “It was fun to play even though the crowd was cheering for her (Karman).” Asked how her comeback was going, the Canadian said, “Look...It is one small step at a time.”

Meanwhile, two seeded players crashed out in the pre-quarterfinal stage. While Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson, the fifth seed, went down in straight sets to Czech Republic’s Linda Fruhvirtova, No.6 seed Qiang Wang from China was also beaten in straight sets, by Nao Hibino of Japan, a qualifier.

RESULTS: Singles: Second round: E Bouchard bt Karman 6-2, 7-6; L Fruhvirtova bt R Peterson 6-4, 6-2; N Hibino bt Q Wang 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles: First round: A Gasanova/O Selekhmeteva bt A Raina/R Van Der Hoek 6-1, 6-4; O Tjandramulia/A Hartono bt E Yashina/A Sharma 6-3, 6-1; L Stefanie/G Dabrowski bt K Swan/D Papamichail 6-4, 6-1; P Plipuech/M Uchijima bt R Bhatia/ S Balu 6-2, 7-5; A Blinkova/N Dzalamidze bt K Christian/L Marozava 5-7, 6-1, 10-8